Overall impression of the Nube combo package: We LOVE this set up! We will be selling the tent we purchased prior to finding this perfect home away from home. We found it very hard to spend money on a hotel when we knew we would sleep horribly on a bed or ground (compared to our hammocks). Val is now looking for a way to hang her hammock up at home, unconventional….yes! But a convert!
Nubé 1.0 Shelter:
Was great keeping the bugs and rain off us, plus some leaves and branches when the trees became a little too friendly. We could not have been completely comfortable urban camping without this perfect shelter. Unlike tents, where if you touch the fabric it leaks, this Nubé’ does not leak! We were dry at all times (except once and it was our fault, tie out were not deployed correctly due to being surrounded by cement) There were some tweaks made to the tie downs, but they only made it simpler to hang up and take down. We used a no knots approach, by using prusik knots on zing-it line for the tie outs and along the ridge line (later cut this ridge line in two) to center the Nube’ between the trees with Dutch flyz to secure the line around the trees. These changes were a personal choice, which made any adjustment much easier. We found that if we could find a stick to hang the Nubé high enough there was enough room to store a pack below. When this was not feasible due to no sticks, tree being too small or tree having low branches, we hung the pack with an “s” hook to the e-z sling inside the Nubé’ and then strapped the waist and chest down to the Pares Hammock at the foot end. The zipper pulls (the sting attached to plastic on the zippers) pulled off the zippers, we just noted the ends together creating a better and lighter zipper pull.
E-z Slings (tree rope):
These were fantastic, since we just had to wrap them around some chosen trees and clip the hammocks on, they get high marks from us! The only thing we would change is to have more holes closer together to provide more options, as we regularly had to use extenders (Amsteel blue rope made into a 6” circumference loop) to make the Xplorer as flat as possible and then have the Pares the correct distance apart to allow sleeping in comfort for both Val and I. If the trees were 13′ apart the extender was not needed, if 14, 15 or more… it was needed. Without the extender, Val was either, straddling me as I hung too low, or she was hanging too low, causing the netting to be too tight against her body. With this small adjustment, we could hang perfectly every time!
Pares Hammock (Val’s):
This very nice sized hammock allowed enough fabric to shield from the streetlights and vending machines when sleeping. It was also big enough to lie diagonally as well. We did both sleep in this hammock twice when we did not have enough energy to hang both hammocks or knew that we would be sopping wet when climbing in to sleep; it was comfortable even with both of us sprawled across it.
Xplorer Hammock (Ash’s):
This was a perfect secondary hammock. At the beginning, I wished it was slightly wider, but then was happy that it was more compact-able and weighed a lot less than the Pares. The color was perfect for blending in to our surroundings. The Xplorer was also the perfect length for being able to hang ham-bunks. I was totally hidden at all times; they never expected a second person to be in this set-up. The only thing I had to watch out for is, if we tied the Nubé’ down in more of an A frame style for rain, I would need to place a part of my sleeping bag over an edge of my hammock to avoid condensation from forming in my airtight home.
See where we hung for 7 weeks in Japan | Make the system even better with a no-knot setup
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